Psalm 20:1-5

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in the story of how Asa began his race (2 Chronicles 14-15). The covenant God established with him (2 Chronicles 15:1-7), its promise and conditions reflect the desire of GOD to bless and prosper us and the duties to Him required: He will be with us so long as we are with Him; if we seek Him, He will reveal Himself to us; if we forsake Him, He will forsake us (2 Chronicles 15:2-3), simple, direct, just, and generous.

I’ve worn myself down quite a bit, and need rest, and the word rest appears three times in this passage (2 Chronicles 14:6, 7, 11). Only three times? Funny, as I read, I thought the word rest appeared many more times; I guess that is a testimony to how that word jumped off the pages of Scripture into my weary heart.

Of course, with many I always love to read Asa’s prayer (2 Chronicles 14:11), and God’s answer (2 Chronicles 14:12), and Asa’s response to God’s answer (2 Chronicles 15:8—he “renewed the altar of the LORD).

The Mind of the Spirit, however, drew the spirit of my mind aside to speak encouragement to me in 2 Chronicles 15:7:

2Chronicles 15:7 Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.

“Be strong … and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7). Wow, the Comforter knows just what is needed, and when, and how best to deliver. “Your work shall be rewarded.”

The Spirit through Paul exhorted us: “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9). Lately, I heard our President encourage us to not quit; he spoke of how he noticed that so many give up too soon, often just before they were about to break through.

In the valley, kneeling in the shadow of His Cross, I thought of Him Who almost gave up on us—“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). The Father sent an angel to strengthen Him, and He prayed yet more earnestly, till blood poured through His pours. Perhaps He noticed on His Hands the blood from His brow, and noted the blood that fell to the ground of the garden beneath His face, as He prayed: “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done” (Matthew 26:42).

I wondered, in wonder, if the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world” in this garden thought upon Eden, and the blood shed there in a metaphor shed here for real —In that garden, metaphorically, in this garden literally.

He spoke, and His words were poured upon me like a sort of baptism: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

At the table, He spoke to me concerning the reward reckoned of grace, and that reckoned of work (Romans 4:4 —“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.”) He read a verse He wrote to us through His servant Paul: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

He anointed my head with His oil and mingled sufficient grace into my overflowing cup. Goodness and mercy stepped forward, I rose, and we walked together into the harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏